Business Process Improvement Plan

First, make sure that everyone understands what the process is meant to do.Then, explore how you can address the problems you identified in step 2 (Brainstorming can help here).

It's best to work with the people who are directly involved in the process.

Their ideas may reveal new approaches, and, also, they're more likely to buy into change if they've been involved at an early stage.

You probably use dozens of business processes every day.

For example, you may go through the same steps each time you generate a report, resolve a customer complaint, contact a new client, or manufacture a new product.

Once you and your team agree on a process, create new diagrams to document each step.

You now need to secure the resources you need to implement the new process. This could include guidance from senior managers or from colleagues in other departments, such as IT or HR.Note down everyone's ideas for change, regardless of the costs involved.Then, narrow your list of possible solutions by considering how your team's ideas would translate to a real-life context.These different kinds of processes have one thing in common: they're all designed to streamline the way that you and your team work.When everyone follows a well-tested set of steps, there are fewer errors and delays, there is less duplicated effort, and staff and customers feel more satisfied.Consider the following questions: to trace the problem to its origins.After all, if you only fix the symptoms, the problems will continue.If you need to start again from first principles, see our article on Business Process Reengineering When you encounter some of the problems mentioned above, it may be time to review and update the relevant process.Follow these steps to do this: Once you've decided which process you want to improve, document each step using a Flowchart.You've likely come across the results of inefficient processes, too.Unhappy customers, stressed colleagues, missed deadlines, and increased costs are just some of the problems that dysfunctional processes can create.